First post, by lukeman3000
I have been using the DOSBox with MUNT that collector includes with his installers over on the Sierra Help pages.
I tried out the most recent ECE build (r4006 ECE) with interesting results. The music sounds a little more distorted and "crackly" as compared to the DOSBox build included with the Sierra Help installers. I've included a video for comparison:
As the description says, the first version heard is the most recent ECE build whereas the second is the one included with the SHP installers. If you alternate between pressing 2 and 8 it will skip the video between the two versions for better comparison.
Any idea why I'm getting this distortion with the ECE build? Additionally, the ECE build sounds like it's equalized a bit differently, like with more of a reverse bell curve (low mids, high highs) whereas the SHP build sounds a bit more flat in comparison.
Here is a another comparison between King's Quest IV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5yobdHILvo&feature=youtu.be
(This time, the older MUNT build is at the first of the video and the newer, ECE build is at the end)
The newer MUNT sounds a little less muddy to me, but if you'll notice on some of the higher notes (as in at 0:56), it sounds like there's some kind of buzzing or distortion or something going on.
Maybe that's how it's supposed to sound and this newer version of MUNT is a more true MT-32 emulation? I don't know. But to me it sounds a little messed up, not knowing what a real MT-32 sounds like in this scenario.
Here's (apparently) the KQ4 soundtrack which was recorded with an MT-32 and it does not seem to have that distortion that I'm hearing in the ECE build.